Why GNU/Linux needs slick marketing

By Sam Varghese
Thursday, 18 September 2008 21:08

Opinion and Analysis

In the wake of the Firefox EULA issue, the well-known GNU/Linux news accumulation website, Linux Today, ran a very short editorial which came to the rather hurried conclusion that the free operating system does not need what it characterised as "slick marketing."
When Brian Proffitt was the editor of Linux Today, his comment pieces were well-argued and reasoned; they rarely were short of 750 words and whatever conclusion he came to was certainly not reached in a hurry.

Not so with this edit on "Linux doesn't need slick marketing"; there are some disjointed references to the 1984 Apple commercial, the recent spate of Windows Vista ads with Jerry Seinfeld, the PC vs Mac ad campaign, and the Firefox EULA which has now been withdrawn.

The author, the new editor of the site, Carla Schroder, compares "slick" marketing to the adoption of things like product activation and the Firefox EULA and abruptly concludes that Linux doesn't need any.

To come to a conclusion on something as pervasive as marketing - be it slick or otherwise - in the space of four paragraphs, is, one tends to feel, rather premature. And how exactly does one define "slick"?

Does this mean that GNU/Linux needs another kind of marketing which isn't slick? Ubuntu and everything about it is nothing but slick - but hey, it's not a bad distribution now, is it?

When you put together an endorsement from Nelson Mandela, a name like Ubuntu and a company registered in the Isle of Man, what word would you use to describe the operation other than "slick"?

But before Ubuntu happened on the scene in 2004, Linux did not have half the visibility it does today. The man behind Ubuntu, Mark Shuttleworth, is a techie, an astronaut, a successful businessman, and a billionaire, who is trying to sell GNU/Linux. Find me a better story. Slick hardly begins to describe the marketing campaign that can be woven around him.

The reality is, these days whether you are selling a good product or a mediocre one, you need slick marketing to make yourself heard above the drone of the marketplace.